Winter gardening in Louisiana

The pleasant temperatures we have had this past week, and expectation of pleasant temperatures for the week to come remind us that there is a portion of the year that Louisiana can be rather enjoyable, weatherwise. The onset of Fall and the start of the sugarcane harvest season usually coinside in southern Louisiana. This year, the sugarcane harvest season was somewhat delayed. Farmers were delayed in planting as a result of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and the planting needs to be largely completed before the harvesting begins. The weather has been as good as could be expected for harvesting sugarcane. Sunny days and especially cool evenings for this time of year both have contributed to a respectable sugar content in the crop in spite of the adverse impact that the two hurricanes had.

Another activity that occurs in the Fall in Louisiana is the planting of winter gardens. In our area, many vegetable crops actually do better when planted in the fall than when planted in the early spring. Popular winter-grown vegetable crops in southern Louisiana include beets, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, chard, kohlrabi, lettuce, leek, onions, shallots, potatoes, peas, and spinach. Last year, I couldn't believe the wonderful cabbage we had when it was fall-planted. Check out the growth of our fall-transplanted cabbage and broccoli this year. Believe it or not, these plants were transplanted only five weeks ago...on September 19. It's almost scary how fast they are growing.